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Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management for Google+, tipped his hand to the effort in a tweet on Twitter Sept. 2, noting: "We're about to pilot a 'suggested user'-like mechanism on Google+. If you've got more than 100k followers on Twitter, DM me - let's talk!"

Further reading

When Twitter launched its list two years ago, it made life easier for users who wanted new people to follow but didn't know how to find them. It also jacked up follower rates for popular people such as the celebrities listed above.

The result was that it made Twitter noisier, and left others wanting more followers at a disadvantage. Suggested user lists, after all, don't contribute to a level playing field.

Already the skepticism is rolling in on Google+. Kanalley noted:

"I don't think this is a good idea. It's going to alienate people and lead to an inevitable followers war that can hurt the health of the social network and inflate people's egos. As the famous get more followers, the non-featured fall farther behind, and a giant gap is created between the two. This is what happened on Twitter."

"The Google Suggested User List reads like the typical San Francisco Bay Area tech firm's view of the World: most of the "interesting and famous people" are white, and if they're black, they're male rappers or athletes. Hello, Snoop Dog, Chamillionaire, 50 Cent, Dwight Howard, and Floyd Mayweather!"

Horowitz posted this list of suggestions for leveraging the suggested user list on Google+, noting that users need to be interesting if they want to get followed.

He didn't address Zennie 62's complaints of racist actions by Google, but did addressed Kanalley's concern of favoritism, which is shared by many in the social media sector:

"Today's list isn't yet personalized. At first personalization will be "lite" - users in different regions and languages will get different recommendations. But per above, we intend to allow people to deeply personalize and connect with like-minded people that create great content around almost any topic they care about.He added that popular people must retain their position on the list by creating compelling content.